“Space Weavers” takes gestures of intimacy and dispositives of support (giving & receiving) as a creative and ethical impulse. It explores themes of affect and investigates structures and politics of intimacy through gestures, text, sound and touch. “Space Weavers” is a lab that researches a choreography that emerges from a cultivation of somatic practices and invites the participants to explore their space weaver - their maker of spaces to inhabit - as an individual and/or as a collective body. Working across slow gestures, intimacy, presence, holding space, consent and conscious touch, I propose to examine the desire of belonging, of been seen, heard and held. The essence of the lab will be approached through exercises that invite slowing down, connecting and sensing. The deliberate modulation of speed serves as a conduit to (co-)regulate the nervous system, as well as making one aware that both individual and collective processes can be challenging. The process explores the driven force and potentialities that produce an affect: both on the giver and on the receiver.
“Space Weavers” researches and attempts to formulate what the rituals of gathering of the 21st century are. To this lab I invite what’s present in the physical- and in the emotional body and the desire to make hidden things visible - what is repressed, put aside or ignored - is unfolded by intimate gestures. With softness and slowness, and by calibrating the flexibility and/or the firmness of our muscle of vulnerability, we create a texture of sharing, not showing. Which spaces do I lack and which spaces do I want to create? What do I want to share?
“Space Weavers” explores geographies of affection (what is present in us) and is part of an intimate series of projects that share unapologetically our emotions as a political gesture.
Lab / workshop:
Monday to Friday (5 days), from 17:30 to 21:30
Open Studio:
Saturday at 19:00 (approximately 2 hours with after talk)
Target audience:
professionals, art students, students in general and other people interested in performing arts or somatic practices.
Maximum number of participants:
around 25 People
Workshop Participation Fee:
Free admission
It's been 17 days and I miss these people dearly. Hugs, tears, breathing, sighs. Locking eyes with someone and my heart stops. Being held. Feeling someones pain and merely witnessing it because it’s not meant to be wiped away. Sweating and dancing together. "Beijinhos“. Chocolate croissants. Skin on skin.
I feel small changes in my body, in my daily life and in my nervous system. I feel safer, more vulnerable, calmer. I feel strong enough to say goodbye to people who can no longer be part of my life. I feel open enough to welcome new people into my life. I feel the pleasure of cooking a meal and sharing it with a friend while having a conversation about how we enter relationships and how we don’t want them to end. I feel that my embrace when dancing tango is firmer and closer because I can trust. I can feel that my mind is wandering less and I wake up many times now in the morning with a feeling of "it will be ok“. With SPACE WEAVERS, André Uerba created a moment in time that will live in me forever. A safer space for intimacy, kindness and vulnerability.
Posted on instagram on the 19 November 2024
by Lena Peters
Photos: Gabriela Carvalho
Casa da Dança, Almada, 2024
Drawing: Maria Abrantes